Keeping Clean... the shower offensiveScooby is only the size of a delivery van... 4.8m Long and 2.3m Wide... fits snuggly into a shopping car park space. Height is not an issue as he is 2.6m tall so plenty of room for us shorties! The point is that space on the inside is at a premium, so the shower is "cosy"... but it does the job. Best of all we have a gas water boiler so the water is HOT HOT HOT!!

We need to fill up our water tank every few days as there is only enough water for 2 showers each and dish washing water. In France filling up the water tank was pretty easy and cheap (2-3 Euro) via staying in an Aire d'service. In Italy, it was not immediately obvious where we could fill up the water - a lot less signs than in France... but we have found fill up points on the highways and managed a lot more free/wild camping in Italy then we did in France..

. in fact we have not stayed in a designated campsite at all in Italy.

Need to talk to a man about a dog... Toilet timeIt is amazing how toilet dramas/stories are always a hot topic of conversation amongst travelers. I feel a little empty this time round as we have averted the problem as we have a Thetford cassette Porta Potti. Called "Theo"... We started out thinking would only use him in emergency situations but with the scarcity of public loos in France and more so in Italy means he is getting a lot more use than first planned. These loos are easy to empty and not messy or smelly with is good since it's my job to clean Theo out. I have coined the phrase "Feeding Theo" as a euphemism for going to the loo which Kim thinks is gross!! But I'm sure she'll be using the term in no time ;-)

Gas... not bad flatulenceWe filled up our two 4.5kg gas bottles before we left London. The rest of Europe do not use UK calor gas bottles so at some stage we will have to buy a EU standard gas bottle - the only standard bottle is Campingaz which is expensive, so we are hoping that our 9kg will suffice but I am not confident. We have been on the continent 5 weeks now and we are still on the first bottle but it is near impossible to guess how much is left

Electric Boogaloo ... Keeping the lights onWe have 2 batteries, one for the car to start and one for leisure. When the Car battery is full then the leisure battery is recharged. We can also hook up to Mains power if we want to via a plug in the side of Scooby. We've only hooked up to mains twice and found that we can charge all our gadgets from the leisure battery without running out of power. Laptop, Camera, phone, iPod, eBook and GPs. The fridge goes 3 ways off Mains when plugged in, off battery when the car is running and off gas when stationary.

Mad MaryWe have a GPS with EU maps installed. She was christened Mad Mary by the previous owner due to her sometimes questionable choice of routes and directions given. A classic is where we are on a main road with a slight bend and there is a goat track leading off the road. She tells us to turn right to avoid the goat track and stay on the highway... Sound advice, I would never have thought...Kim laughs as I often engage in conversation with Mary why she instructed me to go one way but blatantly ignored informing me about an important turn which I only noticed from looking at her screen.

Maison d'Scooby - Moochelin star cookingIt is my job to drive everywhere and keep Scoobs in good health, in return it is Kim's job to cook and clean... sounds like old school type casting but it works! The food has been great (and so has the driving) Kim has even joked about writing a Cookbook for campervaning

. We have a 2 burner stove, griller and oven, as well as a small fridge/freezer and limited storage space, so our food is always super fresh. The day always starts with our coffee peculator brewing, and more often than not scrambled eggs.Lunch is usually a baguette stuffed with loads of fresh salad, stinky cheese (the smellier the better!!) and Parma ham. Our dinner staples are Spaghetti Bolognaise, Pork Fajitas, Hamburgers with the LOT, Cous Cous ala Gill with chicken and of course no meal starts without the obligatory Ham cheese and olive tapas and a bottle of wine.

The other stuffWe need to make up our bed every evening as it is made out of our hand lounge chairs. Thus we have to be pretty organised - everything has a home and has to go back there as soon as you've finished with it. This also means that every takes a long time... so our alarm goes off at 6,30am. This gives us 30 min to awake from our sleepy haze then coffee and breakfast 1/2 hr. Then make the bed into table and chairs. Change into running gear and run round the current place of abode. Shower and dress... even if we did everything with military precision we still would not be being tourists until 10am at the earliest.

Because of our limited space Kim has become much more aware of the amount of rubbish we throw away as we have to take out the trash after every meal.

. the freedom is great. You can go to all of the little villages which are so difficult to get to when your backpacking. You're not tied to accommodation bookings or having to hunt out hostels on arrival to your destination. And you're not limited by bus and train timetables. The other upside is that we are quite comfortably staying within our 50 Euro a day budget (25 Euro each) - yep that's fuel, food, the occasional wine or 3 out at a bar, entrance fees, the lot!!

Downside of campervaning... it is a lot harder socialising and meeting other people. In a hostel this is easy especially if you are in an 8 bed dorm with a bunch of strangers. In a van you don't have this opportunity and most other vanners are of the retired variety... nothing wrong with that, but even they are thin on the ground. Of course this has a lot to do with the time of year we are travelling and there is a festival van circuit the young antipodian crowd do each year, which is not really our thing. So it is our own fault for choosing this time and this route. The end result is that we tend to pounce upon anyone speaking English in the near vicinity. We haven't scared anyone off yet so we mustn't seem too desperate.

Comments

I've been enjoying reading your blog- great work. Especially appreciated this page re: life in Scooby as we're taking off on a Scooby -esque adventure ourselves in a few weeks. I had been wondering as to how long our gas bottles would last etc.Thanks and Happy Travels!